Friday, August 10, 2018

Trump Weaponizes Tariffs Against Turkey!

President Donald Trump has announced that he has authorized doubling tariffs on imports of Turkish steel and aluminum.

Trump tweeted:

I have just authorized a doubling of Tariffs on Steel and Aluminum with respect to Turkey as their currency, the Turkish Lira, slides rapidly downward against our very strong Dollar! Aluminum will now be 20% and Steel 50%. Our relations with Turkey are not good at this time!

It should be noted that Trump is not doing this for economic reasons but for political reasons.

Benn Steil correctly observes:

Tariffs have become Trump's go-to policy for everything, from cutting the trade deficit (which they won't) to protecting national security (a transparently ludicrous pretext) to just plain bullying.https://t.co/fBJ4a4APlo via @bpolitics